I already blogged about the wedding, so you can check it out below for the first few days of the trip. After we checked out of our Lincoln Park hotel we moved downtown to the Wyndham just off of Michigan Ave. Lunch was first on the agenda and we thought deep dish pizza was the way to go!
We planned to visit several museums in just a couple short days, so we went straight to the Shedd Aquarium that afternoon. It was super busy - Labor Day weekend - but we saw the dolphin show and plenty of fish and odd sealife.
It was early evening when we left the aquarium and the light was really pretty over the city skyline and the lake. Seeing the water and all the yachts reminded us of NZ and how much we miss it. :( We hung out in the park for awhile, then took a long walk all along the shoreline to Navy Pier. A crazy cover band was playing in the beer garden, so we relaxed there for awhile then saw an absolutely amazing fireworks display out over the lake!
Up early the next morning, we went straight to the Museum of Science and Industry.
Hurricane Gustav had just made landfall that morning, I believe, and we saw this satellite weather display showing it hit!
Lots of planes & trains and other big machines!
One of our favorite exhibits was the Smart Home. It's an architecturally designed, factory made, ready-to-assemble on site, green house. It was made with sustainable materials and used good design to make the most of a small space... a good balance of eco-friendly, high-tech, and normal. (We couldn't take pictures inside, but here are a few I got and there are more in the album.)
Later that night we walked along Michigan Ave. and went to the observatory at the John Hancock building.
On our last full day we started out at the Field Museum and were so early we were the only ones in the entry hall and got some pictures with Sue (the largest T-Rex skeleton) by ourselves. Our feet were in a delicate state, so we picked out a couple exhibits stuck to a strict schedule... there was still shopping to do!
We saw the Nature Unleashed special exhibit on natural disasters, all kinds of (stuffed) animals, a little about Africa and tons of dinosaur skeletons.
After the Field Museum, we made our way back to the city via the 'L' and had more Chicago pizza at Giordano's. That afternoon we roamed Michicagn Ave., shopping, and enjoying the atmosphere. There was a great street art exhibit that was spread all along Michigan Ave. in the planters - dresses made out of anything and everything.
On our last night, we went out to dinner at the House of Blues. The food and drinks were good, but the blues band was great! There was a concert going on above the restaurant though and the entire ceiling actually bounced with the crowd. They told us it was built on springs to handle just that, but it was still frightening!
On the way back to our hotel we walked along the river (one of my favorite parts of the city). Andy also got talked into a shoe shine that night... which he actually needed, but wasn't expecting! The next morning we had just enough time to check out the AT&T store where Andy ended up getting his very long awaited iPhone... and also talked me into one! Quite the souvenir to complete our trip. You can see all the photos here.
